Information storage devices are used to retrieve and/or store data for computer systems and other consumer electronics products. Information storage devices such as magnetic hard disk drives are sensitive to their external environment, including mechanical shocks, externally applied forces and electromagnetic fields, contamination, changes in temperature and/or humidity, etc. Therefore, an information storage device's housing and mounting system may affect its performance, reliability, and lifetime.
Many information storage devices are housed within the system for which they retrieve and/or store data. For example, so-called “internal” disk drives are housed within a host computer system for which they store data, and therefore internal disk drives may take advantage of the host computer system for electrical power, electromagnetic shielding, convective and/or conductive cooling, vibration dampening, some degree of isolation from external mechanical shocks, etc.
Other information storage devices are not housed within the system for which they retrieve and/or store data. For example, a so-called “external” hard disk drive includes its own housing, which may provide electromagnetic shielding, vibration dampening, some degree of isolation from external mechanical shocks, and a means for cooling.
The amount of heat that must be dissipated by an external hard disk drive housing depends upon several design factors. For example, if the disk rotation speed is chosen to be higher, then more heat will be generated by the spindle motor of the disk drive (for a given disk diameter and number of disks). Also, if more disks are mounted on the spindle motor hub, then more heat will be generated by the spindle motor of the disk drive (for a given disk diameter and disk rotation speed). Therefore, for a specified disk drive design, more heat will be generated by a fully populated variant of that design than by a depopulated variant of that design (e.g. where some of the disks are deliberately absent).
In either case, it would be disadvantageous to include unnecessary (or more than necessary) components and structures to accomplish heat dissipation, because the mounting systems and housings for modern information storage devices must also meet challenging space and cost requirements. For example, an external disk drive housing that is designed to provide adequate cooling for a disk drive that generates relatively greater heat is likely to be excessively expensive and bulky for a disk drive that generates relatively less heat. Therefore, the utility of conventional external disk drive housings has been practically limited to a narrow range of disk drive designs.